Only Fans

Currently running its second season on Hulu, Only Murders in the Building is a half-hour comedy starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez. Their characters, obsessed with true crime podcasts, decide to create one of their own when a resident of their fancy New York apartment building dies under mysterious circumstances.

This is a fun show, but it's a bit of an oddity, and it's definitely not for everyone. It's absolutely a comedy, but it's rarely laugh-out-loud funny and it doesn't traffic in classic "set up / punchline" structure. There's a dramatic side, and that obviously revolves around a mystery that slowly unspools over the course of a 10-episode season. But it's not a particularly difficult mystery to unravel; don't expect to be stunned by the big reveal. Still, the cocktail of these seemingly disparate elements is great together when shaken up.

You don't have to actually listen to podcasts to be entertained, but it's certainly funnier if you have. True crime podcasts in general, and Serial in particular, are lampooned regularly throughout the first season. At the same time, the show doesn't develop just one format and stick with it. A late season one episode notably unfolds with no dialogue (a conceit that is both gimmicky and organic at the same time). And the humor/drama balance does fluctuate quite a lot from one episode to the next in an engaging way.

That said, you have to like at least one of the stars, and you can't dislike any of them. This show is Steve Martin as his Steve Martin-iest, and even more Martin Short at his most Martin Short-iest. The former is in cheesy Dad mode all the time, while the latter is playing an exaggerated cartoon character. I'm generally quite the fan of Steve Martin, and can tolerate Martin Short, so it works for me. My friend, who can't stand Martin Short, would find this absolutely unwatchable. (Meanwhile, Selena Gomez, for her part, is usually made to play the "straight man" opposite the two of them. It feels like she could do more than is written for her, but this is a vehicle mainly for her veteran co-stars.)

The list of other co-stars and guest stars is pretty wild. In season one alone, you'll see Amy Ryan, Tina Fey, Nathan Lane, Sting, Jane Lynch, and more. The guests are often the ones playing broader and against type as well, which is a lot of fun.

Season two is unfolding right now (and I'm a few episodes behind as I write this). But I can at least recommend season one as a fun bit of lightness. Most people I know have a flood of one-hour dramas in their TV queue, so Only Murders in the Building -- which I'd give a solid B -- can slot in easily for some variety.

Another Swing at Bat

One of the biggest movies of the year so far came fairly early in 2022. The latest superhero reboot, The Batman, dazzled fans and made many more casual viewers declare, "that's actually pretty good." I finally watched it when it began streaming on HBO Max... and found it really wasn't for me.

The Batman doesn't hit audiences with yet another interpretation of the well known hero's origin story. But it does offer a slightly new angle on the character: kinda-sorta centered on detective work (though I believe this is a function of the Riddler being the main villain), darker in tone even than Christopher Nolan's take, and literally (visually) dark. From glowing reviews, I'd been led to believe this reimagining was actually more sweeping than it actually felt to me; it just struck me that someone found the Brooding knob that you might have thought The Dark Knight had maxed, and cranked it up to full.

When two different groups fill out a conventional Madlib, the results aren't usually that different. People give different words to fill in the blanks, but given the structure of the Madlib itself -- a permission to be a little subversive and a tacit encouragement to give certain types of answers -- the results aren't all that different. The Batman is a dramatic Madlib. The choices aren't really all that different.

And some of those choices didn't strike me as that effective. Christian Bale was often lovingly critiqued for his growling Batman voice... but at least that feels like an acting choice next to Robert Pattinson's perpetually mopey incarnation. Colin Farrell is fine in the movie... but you have to ask what the point of even casting Colin Farrell is, for this role that buries him unrecognizably under metric tons of makeup. Paul Dano apparently went deeply Method for his role in this movie (though not in an obnoxious Jared Leto sort of way)... but that effort hardly seems necessary for what amounts to maybe 10 minutes of screen time?

Watching The Batman wore me down. It's nearly three-hours long, and the plot meanders to a degree that had me feeling I was binge-watching a season of television more than watching a single movie. The musical score, from composer Michael Giacchino (who I usually love), is a monotonous snooze; it's built on the back of just two notes more so than any score since Jaws, but generates none of the tension or interest.

There are some bright spots in the movie (just not literally). Jeffrey Wright gets a lot of screen time as James Gordon, and his performance is great. Assuming the rest of the world-weariness of the film hasn't worn you down, his embodiment of that feels very authentic. Zoë Kravitz is fine as Catwoman, and the writing of her character especially interesting -- not at all as put together as past movie Catwoman performances, but no distressed damsel either. Seeing John Turturro act is always a treat.

I thought, right after the movie ended, that I'd give The Batman something like a C. But perhaps the movie numbed me as I watched it. With a little distance, I find it easy to remember things that didn't hit with me, and a real struggle to remember why I might have thought it was as good as that. Maybe a C-? It's probably not a distinction worth me chasing, because I think anybody who would truly like The Batman saw it before me.

Voyager Flashback: Revulsion

Episodic Star Trek does a lot of "genre-hopping," taking advantage of the ability to funnel other styles of storytelling through a science fiction lens. With "Revulsion," Voyager took a run at "thriller."

Voyager answers a distress call from a holographic alien alone on a ship whose corporeal crew has all died. The Doctor is eager to bond with a kindred spirit, but it gradually becomes clear that his would-be friend is actually responsible for the crews' deaths. Meanwhile, Harry Kim is awash in a confusing jumble of feelings as he must work closely with Seven of Nine.

There's a lot about this episode that feels inspired by Alfred Hitchcock. There are moments where we the audience see incriminating things that the characters (B'Elanna and the Doctor) do not. There are specific shot homages, particularly to Psycho. The opening scene is perhaps the most Hitchcock of all: by showing us that the alien hologram Dejaren is a murderer, it forces the story to turn on suspense and not surprise -- Hitchcock's signature method. There's a dash of John Carpenter in here too, in the final "one last scare" confrontation between slow-walking silent killer Dejaren and outmatched, fleeing B'Elanna.

It's possible that the relative inexperience of the director here is why this cribs so heavily from "the greats." Kenneth Biller's main role on the show was as a staff writer and producer. (Interestingly, he did not write this script. It came from another staff writer, Lisa Klink.) Biller had some background directing theater, but little film experience. Even veteran directors aren't above borrowing from the best; Biller just seems to have dipped into the bag of tricks more than most. He also tries a few unusually showy shots for Voyager -- most notably, a minutes-long single take in the mess hall that passes between multiple conversations.

I feel the swings at style are a bit of a mixed bag. Where it does work, I mostly credit a strong, intense performance from guest star Leland Orser. He's one of those ubiquitous working actors (who had even done Star Trek before) -- though he will probably always be most recognized for his harrowing minor role in Seven. Here, wearing basically Brent Spiner's Data makeup, he is profoundly creepy, elevating a pretty stock serial killer role: a fastidious, quiet, explosive menace. The day after he shot this guest role, he hopped on a plane to London to appear in Saving Private Ryan -- so, yeah, this was Leland Orser at his peak.

The Seven/Kim subplot is less successful in my eye. The two characters make a good pairing, but it seems like the writers hadn't quite figured out how they were going to write Seven of Nine yet. It's fine that she gets the emotional upper hand on Harry Kim in the abstract, but she seems so mature and self-possessed, and that simply doesn't fit her history. She's a little too "human" in this episode, gamely moving past a mistake she's made (that should shake her profoundly) and wielding humor too skillfully.

Humor generally isn't this episode's strong suit. Paris trashing the Sickbay as he takes over for Kes feels pretty cheap. A story about pranking Tuvok by programming his computer to say only "live long and prosper" feels like it might actually be slightly racist. The Doctor pretending briefly to have gone psycho at the end is so bizarre. (Though one joke is delightful: Robert Picardo's delivery of the admission that the Doctor took "a few days to master the social graces.")

Other observations:

• Tuvok receives a promotion. I swear, in one reaction shot of Harry Kim, you can see Garrett Wang playing Kim's slight jealousy.

• I do wonder what the aliens' treatment of Dejaren was really like. (We have only Dejaren's account.) Was he actually mistreated? How much did the aliens bring their fate upon themselves by creating a monster?

• Dejaren reaches inside B'Elanna's body to attack her internal organs. I'm shocked she's not more wounded after that. I guess it's Klingon multiple redundant organs?

• They set up that a new Astrometrics Lab will be built. It will take several episodes before we see it. It's kind of different of Star Trek to make a big deal about a new set coming over the course of multiple episodes, rather than just debuting it.
  

Mostly on the strength of the guest star, I'll give "Revulsion" a B. It's fine enough, though I think it falls somewhat short of the horror-thriller aspirations it seems to have had.

A Stain in Your Game Collection

Azul is one of the bigger success stories in board gaming of the last several years. It hits the sweet spot of "simple to explain," but with "interesting strategy" to consider. It can satisfy veteran and casual gamers alike. It made the crossover to sell in mass market retailers.

So naturally, the game was going to have expansions. Spin-off stand-along games, actually. One of these is Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra.

Like Azul, the game casts players as artisans creating beautiful tile mosaics -- in this case, a stained glass window. As in Azul, there are a number of offerings in a ring at the center of the table. Each offering has four tiles in it; on your turn, you take all the tiles of one color from one offering, then push the remainder into the center. (Alternatively, you can take all the tiles of one color from the center, though there is a point penalty for the first player to do so each round.)

All that gameplay is exactly the same as the original Azul. Where Stained Glass of Sintra differs is in how the tiles you select are then placed onto a personal game board in front of you. There's more complexity in this element of the game, as you must manage a pawn that moves from left to right along several columns, until you take a turn off to reset it at the left. Tiles you draft must be placed in the column directly under your pawn, but you may move the pawn to the right (never to the left) before you place. Each column has its own specific color requirements for tiles, and an endgame scoring condition pays attention to which columns you fill in over the whole of the game.

Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra does an excellent job of creating a new game within the framework of Azul. No one would ever imagine these games weren't related, but it's very clever about how it remixes the rules into a new form. Most game collections wouldn't need both, however.

The core Azul experience is very pure and in my mind, still probably the best. But Stained Glass of Sintra is a nice variation, and may well be the preference for many gaming groups -- people who just inherently want a touch more complexity, or who liked the original Azul but got tired of it after a while. (You'd have a much harder time explaining this one to any non-gaming friends.) In my gaming circle, the arrangement is: other people own Azul (there's more than one copy in the group), while I bought Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra. We get access to both, but no one has both in their personal collection.

I think just about every good gaming collection ought to have an Azul in it. If you don't have one, I'd give Stained Glass of Sintra a B+. Perhaps that's the one for you.

Rebel Rebel

A few months back, I wrote in praise of two Star Wars animated series: The Clone Wars and (especially) The Bad Batch. Now I'm back to voice support for the show that was made in between the two, but is set in the Star Wars chronology in the years before the original film.

Star Wars: Rebels centered on the adventures of a small Rebel band led by Hera Syndulla. Her crew included willful young Jedi trainee Ezra, his mentor Kanan, young Mandalorian warrior Sabine, bruiser-type alien Zeb, and trouble-making robot Chopper. Over the course of its four season run, this band brushed up against the people and events of the original Star Wars trilogy with increasing frequency.

It took me a while to warm up to the show. It focuses a lot on Ezra in the early episodes -- and he is very much a moody, exasperated (and exasperating) teenager in the beginning. Even as the focus began to widen, some episodes were better than others. Rebels really had the feeling of a show in which all the scripts were written by lifting the best bits from some ongoing RPG campaign that was being run and recorded somewhere. (Executive producer Dave Filoni's campaign, one might assume?)

Still, the show felt good enough to stick with, as it brushed up against characters and plot elements of the original Star Wars trilogy in fun ways. Yes, that too supported that feeling of it being a role-playing game, but now at least it was becoming a well-run campaign, a very effective nostalgia delivery system. By season two, the show had really hit its stride, boldly incorporating the voices of original Star Wars cast members, appearances of great characters from The Clone Wars series, and interesting stories about these new main characters themselves. Seasons two and three of Rebels really represent another great run of Star Wars.

The final season four is a bit of a step down again. Certainly not enough to undermine the project, but... endings are hard. Especially when, as an immediate prequel to Star Wars, Rebels was obligated to "clean up its room and put all its toys in exactly the right place." The last dozen-or-so installments are a highly serialized tightrope walk of trying to invest us in a particular story line that Rebels can resolve (because it doesn't impact the original trilogy), even as its trying to excite us with more classic characters and more lead-ups to A New Hope. The balance isn't always quite right, but at least this tightrope act is working with the big net of Star Wars to catch it.

The series as a whole is well worth watching for those middle two seasons. Overall, I'd give Star Wars: Rebels a B+. It has a solid voice cast, ever-improving animation, and its way of storytelling was a real forerunner for the current live-action Star Wars television we've been getting. If you're a Star Wars fan who hasn't checked it out, you'd probably enjoy it.

* * *

As a footnote, what I absolutely cannot recommend is the next animated series in the Star Wars canon: Resistance. A prequel to The Force Awakens, I tried it and couldn't make it past the third episode. Its protagonist, Kaz, is a shocking dark horse contender for the most annoying character in the Star Wars universe. Yes, far more annoying that Ezra was on Rebels in the early going. Yes, as whiny as C-3PO. Yes, as big a stupid disaster magnet as Jar Jar Binks. With no other good points arriving immediately on the scene to balance that out, Resistance was utterly unwatchable. If you're reading this, and you actually watched all of Resistance... why? HOW?

Ms. Adventure

The part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that isn't actually at the cinema recently wrapped up its latest series, Ms. Marvel.

Like Moon Knight, this was another fun series to approach as a viewer unfamiliar with the comics. No trailers, no expectations, no real clue about what the series was going to be made this a more intriguing prospect than, say, another Thor movie. But also: I found it a bit tough to get into at first.

Kamala Khan is not the first young superhero in the MCU. But she feels more authentically youthful and modern to me than Peter Parker -- partly due to the writing and partly because it's been 6 years since Tom Holland first played his role, and he's not really looking like a high school student these days. To get right to the likely heart of the "problem": I'm officially becoming an old person. Kamala came roaring out of the gate as a very bubbly, very outgoing, demonstratively enthusiastic character who initially felt like "a lot" to me. But of course, if I'm identifying more with the "parents who just don't understand" than the protagonist? Yeah, this is saying something about where I am in my life.

But the show improved, more or less, over each of the subsequent five episodes. Part of this was probably my acclimation, but I think the show also improved as it included more material centered on Kamala's Muslim and Pakistani heritage. The MCU is a Play-Doh Fun Factory attachment that's always forcing the dough, whatever color, to take a particular shape. But occasionally, the attachment put on has wider holes, and so it was here. Real world history mixed with legend drawn from that history. The show made some effective statements on family (and extended family), bigotry, and representation. And it did it while fundamentally just letting a kid be a kid.

There were still peaks and valleys, even on that steady arc of improvement. A weird one-off element of time travel seemed quite shoehorned into one episode, where a more straightforward flashback had been doing the narrative job just fine. Marvel's standard "villain problem" was back, as the "bad guy" was by far the least interesting, least defined element of the story. On the other hand, a triumphant finale delivered the best version of "the Hero is ALSO all the supportive people around them" in ages (really cementing the themes of family throughout the series).

All told, I'd say Ms. Marvel averaged out to around a B for me. The prospect of a future movie that has this hero interacting with her hero sounds like fun.

Strange New Worlds: A Quality of Mercy

The first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ended as it began, with an episode focusing on Pike's tragic destiny: "A Quality of Mercy."

When Pike meets one of the people fated to die in the accident that will one day ravage him, he decides to take action to change that future. Immediately, a version of himself from farther in the future appears with a warning to do nothing... and a time crystal to show him the consequences if he doesn't listen. Pike is transported seven years into the future, into a critical conflict with the Romulans that was meant to have gone very differently had Pike not been present.

Strange New Worlds opens each episode with Pike giving the same narration that Captain Kirk gave more than 50 years ago. In the most famous line of that speech is the phrase "to boldly go." And that sure is what this episode of Strange New Worlds does: it has confidence at every turn.

It has the confidence to dare play with one of the most iconic episodes of the entire original series, "Balance of Terror." Sure, some of the dialogue from that 1966 classic hasn't aged perfectly, but the episode's clever adaptation of a cat-and-mouse submarine battle, its bold stance against racial bigotry, its message about humanity on both sides of a war, and its highlighting of the costs of war -- that all still plays wonderfully. Episodes like "Balance of Terror" are the reason why Star Trek built a fandom devoted enough for us to still have Star Trek today.

Revisiting that episode is not a light-hearted romp like Deep Space Nine's journey back into "The Trouble With Tribbles." There was frankly little to gain and a lot to lose here. But Strange New Worlds found ways to honor the major elements of the original episode -- sometimes by recreating it faithfully (with an amazing boost by modern production values), and sometimes by remixing elements of the old into a new form. I can't say for sure how this all plays to a viewer who has no knowledge of "Balance of Terror," but I found it delightful.

"A Quality of Mercy" shows confidence in its main characters, in allowing some of them to look bad. I know I've come to love the cast of Strange New Worlds -- to a shocking degree in so few episodes. So yes, they did have goodwill to spare. And yet, it's still risky to let any version of Ortegas, even one from an alternate reality, voice ugly racism. (In "Balance of Terror," they let a guest star be the heel.) It's risky to state point blank that, as much as we love Christopher Pike, he is absolutely the wrong captain for this place and time, this mission.

The episode shows confidence in its casting of Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk, and in particular how he plays the part. We've had another Kirk since William Shatner, of course. But Chris Pine's take on the iconic character really comes quite close to impersonation. Paul Wesley barely channels Shatner at all. He doesn't look much like him. He barely sounds like him. He doesn't have much of the same physicality. And yet, through the alchemy of perfect writing and a performance that somehow exudes the right attitude, I really do immediately accept this as James T. Kirk.

The series shows confidence in taking another one of its ongoing character stories off the board. After resolving the subplot of Dr. M'Benga's daughter just weeks ago, this episode declares once and for all that Pike will never again try to avoid his future fate. His destiny was fixed, of course, so long as the series wants to remain in continuity with the bulk of the Star Trek franchise. Nevertheless, you could easily imagine a show that would tease this along for ages, perhaps giving us an episode every season in which Pike flirts with the idea of cheating fate. Instead, the writers are confident they can find more new stories for their characters.

So yes, all these risky swings show how much confidence Strange New Worlds has in itself by now. And deservedly so, because all that is good about the episode and more. Ethan Peck is superb here; Pike's conversation with Spock upon returning to his original time is a highlight of the entire season. The memorable Romulan theme from the original series is deployed to great effect in the musical score. The cliffhanger with Una is a compelling place to suspend the story (even if it's essentially the same cliffhanger that Lower Decks last gave us). And praise must be given to the costuming department, who in this episode give us re-imagined versions of the classic Romulan uniforms and the movie-era Starfleet uniform.

My favorite episode of the season remains the deliriously fun "Spock Amok." But "A Quality of Mercy" is a nearly-as-strong A-, and sends out this excellent season as one of the best first seasons for any Star Trek series. (I think the only plausible competition comes from Lower Decks and the original series itself.)

I expect the wait for season two will feel long indeed....

Ritual Killings

Imagine a mash-up of The Blair Witch Project and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre -- a horror film about a group hiking in the woods, where they encounter dark supernatural forces... and a seriously messed-up group of homicidal humans. You don't have to imagine; that movie is The Ritual.

The Ritual is easy enough to lose in the massive volume of content on Netflix. There's no big name director, writer, or actor involved to bubble it up to the surface. (Though it's possible you'd recognize star Rafe Spall as "that guy from that thing.") Yet it is a cut above your average small budget horror movie. Or perhaps it's just that with the advances of visual effects, your average small budget horror movie is capable of more.

Mind you, "showing the creature" is certainly not the only novelty of The Ritual. But it is one thing that distinguishes this movie from its Blair Witch-esque roots. There's an absolutely fantastic monster design in this movie, truly "horrific" and disturbing. And while I feel like the creative forces behind the movie must have known they did well here, they still show tension-building restraint and wait a good long while before showing you what they've done.

The quality of the visuals is not just limited to what's built in a computer. The story is set in the wilderness of Sweden (though apparently, filmed in Romania), and the cinematography is really top notch. There are beautiful natural vistas in the opening act, and then excellent night photography throughout the rest. It cannot have been easy to film under these conditions, nor easy to make it all look this good. I'm usually one to focus first on character and story in a review, so hopefully my attention here highlights just how great I think it all looks.

But, as you might have guessed, one reason I'm not as focused on character and story here is that it's not the movie's strong suit. It's not bad. It's not even bad enough to bring the movie down all that much. But is a little off. A character arc is set up in the movie's opening moments, a thesis statement of a flaw to be overcome. But I think my idea of what that arc is differs from the screen writer's. (Or, perhaps, the author of the book on which this is all based.) I see a story about finding courage; the movie seems to focus on a much baser question of mere survival.

Still, if you are a horror movie fan, I find it pretty easy to recommend The Ritual overall. Especially if you like a lot of "that's messed up" in your horror. I give The Ritual a B.

Are You Without Shame[less]?

You've probably heard of the television series Shameless. It would be hard not to have at least heard of a show that ran 11 seasons and 134 episodes. (Or perhaps you knew that the American version was based on a British original that also ran 11 seasons, and 139 episodes.) If you're like me, though, you've never actually watched Shameless.

Showtime fell off my subscription radar some time around the (first) end of Dexter, and while back episodes could be streamed on Netflix, watching them never seemed critical for keeping up with the cultural zeitgeist (like whatever Netflix original series was on people's mind in a given month). But at some point, I did finally give Shameless a try... and I kept watching. All of it. It was basically a year-long project. And, as a whole, it's pretty good.

In theory, Shameless revolves around Frank Gallagher: a neglectful drunk father who is exactly what the title promises. If the show were truly, principally that, it would surely be unwatchable (no matter how good an actor William H. Macy is). But in truth, Shameless is the story of Frank's family, six children who have to raise themselves in poverty on the south side of Chicago.

It sounds dark, I know, and sometimes it is. But Shameless actually strikes a fairly light tone much of the time. The large cast of characters (combined with a real-world production need to control time working with child actors) means that each episode is crammed with multiple concurrent plot lines. The formula means that any given episode tends to have at least one serious story and one quite ridiculous story, and that's mixed up among the characters over the course of a season.

They're a really enjoyable bunch of characters, too. Over 11 years, children grow up before our eyes. Some characters leave the show permanently. Some leave and then come back. There's family drama. But it doesn't feel like "drama" ALL the time.

Shameless features a great cast -- and you probably don't know most of them if you've never watched the show. Because it ran for so long and demanded so much time of its actors, they generally haven't had time for many other projects in the last decade. You may have seen Emmy Rossum singing in Phantom of the Opera (I haven't, but that's gotta be wildly different), or played as Cameron Monaghan in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. You may have heard of Jeremy Allen White's new Hulu show, The Bear, or heard that they're making a TV series based on the movie True Lies. (That one will be starring Steve Howey.) But probably, you only know William H. Macy and Joan Cusack. No matter who you know and who you don't, if you watch Shameless, you'll learn to love an actor you didn't know before.

Of course, no show that runs 11 seasons is going to be good all that time. Plenty of fans online rank the seasons in their own way, but the overall consensus is the correct one: seasons 1 through 5 (in some order) are the best of the show, while seasons 6 through 11 (in some order) are definitely a "lesser" version of the show. That's a convenient division for anyone who wants to start watching and then just quit if at some point they decide they aren't liking it anymore. However, I will speak up in defense of the final season, which arrived in 2020-2021. Shameless was one of the first shows to actually acknowledge Covid in its story lines. It has some interesting (but not too heavy-handed) commentary on poverty and Covid -- and the creative challenges of filming the end of the series under those conditions seemed to reinvigorate the writers.

The first half of the series, I'd give an A-. The back half is more like a B. The average there feels pretty accurate to me: I'd call the whole series a B+ overall. Watching it, of course, means less time for some show that more people are talking about right now. But I do think Shameless generally will reward you for your time.

Strange New Worlds: All Those Who Wander

The episodic format of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds allows it to easily switch from one sub-genre to the next with every new episode. With the penultimate episode of season one, "All Those Who Wander," the series served up a horror installment.

A landing party investigates a distress call from a starship that crashed on an ice planet. They discover few survivors, and learn that Gorn hatchlings are not only responsible for the carnage, but are now out to kill the rescuers. What starts out as the last mission for Uhura in her cadet training may now be the last mission for Gorns' next victims.

Obviously, this isn't just any horror episode -- it's very specifically inspired by the Alien movie franchise. Indeed, it lifts many details from the Alien movies, most conspicuously a Newt-like child who has survived the attack, a freaking out Hudson-like character who can't handle the pressure of the situation, and an infested character who must sacrifice their life (by falling backward from a great height) to save everyone.

Still, I would say this episode is more "homage" than "ripoff." It does add a few ideas of its own to the Alien mix. The notion that multiple creatures can hatch from one body -- then to immediately start fighting each other -- is an interesting element in the formula. The icy setting -- and its effects on the creatures -- is a big addition, and especially well realized by the production team. (The Enterprise sets are redressed well to look like the Peregrine, and use of the "AR wall" to show the crashed ship on the planet surface is another testament to how great that technology can look when used smartly by a visual effects team.)

More to the point, plenty of little details link this episode well with the rest of the season, further helping to make this a "Star Trek" take on Aliens. M'Benga's verbal slip in a heated moment reminds us that he's still grieving the separation from his daughter. La'an gives the same advice she got from Pike earlier in the season: that there's a difference between surviving and living. Spock being forced to tap into his emotions is a powerful moment, as it has always been for the character throughout the long history of the franchise. (And Chapel being the one to notice the lingering consequences of that is an equally powerful moment.)

Two characters are written out of the show -- one permanently, and one... well... with uncertain open-endedness. La'an's departure for a personal "side quest" is intriguing. Will she be back next season? Will we see an episode centered on what she's doing while she's away? It's unusual for Star Trek to be this unclear about whether a character has permanently left the show or not, and I find that intriguing. On the other hand, Hemmer's death is unambiguous. While I liked the resonance of themes in his death (how he spoke of fulfilling one's purpose, how the death impacted Uhura), I did wonder if the death wasn't quite fully earned. Was it truly inevitable? Was there nothing anyone could have done? (I guess once M'Benga uses a transporter pattern buffer as a "stasis chamber" one time, you're left to wonder why it couldn't be done for everybody.)

Another small doubt I felt was in just how monstrous the writers have made the Gorn. You have to wonder how Gorn society could possibly get it together enough to have starships (or, indeed... society itself). On the other hand, it's certainly interesting to have a villain race that's this alien, this much a menace, who absolutely cannot be reasoned with. (And all of that in a way that's distinct from the Borg.) Plus, the way the production has utilized multiple tools to render the Gorn on screen is monumentally impressive. (In particular, the mingling of puppetry and makeup on Strange New Worlds in this episode is truly amazing.)

In all, I'd give "All Those Who Wander" a B+. Despite a few elements I didn't love wholeheartedly, I found the take on horror fun and effective.

Mild Enjoyment and Thunder

Some time after the first two dull-to-dreadful Thor movies, Marvel executives figured out that Chris Hemsworth is actually really funny. Taiki Waititi was put in charge of the third movie, Ragnarok, and just like that, we finally got a good Thor movie. With the return of Waititi, I was generally excited to see what he'd do with the latest, Thor: Love and Thunder -- particular given that he officially co-wrote this installment.

I guess lightning doesn't strike twice. In fairness, the new fourth Thor movie is still markedly better than the first or second movies. But it's a noticeable step down from the third.

In the plus column, humor still rules the roost in Love and Thunder. Much of the movie is played for laughs. Chris Hemsworth is put front and center for most of the comedy, and he continues to do great with it. This movie has a commitment to running gags that's commendable -- one in particular, surrounding a "gift" Thor receives in the opening scenes, keeps coming back again and again and again throughout the movie. It runs the course that all great running gags do, ceasing to be funny before circling back around and being hilarious.

Another plus is that the movie is generally not just funny, but fun. It's no secret that Natalie Portman returns to the MCU after having previously stepped away. It's also no secret that Christian Bale is in the cast -- though you might well have imagined he'd put comic book movies behind him after the Dark Knight trilogy. This almost anarchic sense of "wait, what are you doing here?" runs through the movie's entire two hours, with surprisingly cast minor characters and cameos aplenty.

But honestly, not much else about the movie truly works. Character motivations are tissue-thin, and while there are emotional stakes at play in the narrative, they don't integrate particularly well with the action so much as step out of the way when it's time to fight. And all of those fights are typical, visually noisy CG. Yes, all the MCU films have that, but occasionally one rises above the obligatory to actually make you feel like what you're seeing matters. This isn't one of those cases.

Perhaps it's a case of familiarity breeding some contempt? I say that because the plot of this movie is shockingly similar to the MCU movie we just got, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Both movies feature superheroes whose powers are fundamentally "magic." Both feature a villain motivated by the loss of a child. Both feature a central hero pining for a love interest who has moved on from him. Both revolve around threats to children as a major element of jeopardy. I'd actually say Thor: Love and Thunder has the stronger emotional climax, but after sitting through so many similar plot beats to get there, I wasn't truly that impressed.

Ultimately, whether you'll like this movie may come down to your willingness to be charmed. Because this movie is certainly an all-out charm offensive. Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, and Natalie Portman all do their best to win you over despite a middling script. And I'd say I was won over enough to put this on just the up side of a recommendation: I'd call it a B-. But I would say if you didn't rush out to see it already, this is one you could (even should) wait to catch upon its inevitable arrival on Disney+.

Final Tales of Minnesota

I bring you a few remaining tales of the trip my husband and I took to Minnesota.

Our last full day began with a trip to the Science Museum of Minnesota. With exhibits spread across many floors, the museum offered diverse collections of interesting artifacts, interactive presentations, and thought-provoking information. Some of it was oriented for children, but much of it was not, and it proved well worth the time.

My personal favorite (unsurprisingly) was the section devoted to human space travel, but there was plenty more to see. An exhibit on racism was incredibly powerful -- particularly a video projecting the names of black victims of police violence (playing out over the duration of time that George Floyd was choked and killed). For emotional release, a large display of "Questionable Medical Devices" throughout history (some sadly recent) was good for laughs.

The rest of our day was devoted specifically to brewery hopping. Dangerous Man had come recommended both generally on the internet and specifically by friends, and it was indeed a highlight. But Inbound surprised with a Peanut Butter Honey Blonde (no, not a porter or stout, as all the breweries do). We didn't stick just to breweries though, also stopping at O'Shaughnessy Distilling for a tasty flight of whiskeys.

We only had half of the next day before our flight home, but there was still time for a couple more stops. Minnehaha Falls is right there in the city, in a park that made for a nice walk and some beautiful photo opportunities. And ultimately, because it's quite near the airport, we spent our last spare hour-or-so back at Mall of America to grab a couple souvenirs before leaving town.

A few final random tidbits that didn't quite fit in to my stories so far:

• Cheese-stuffed hamburgers, aka "Juicy Lucys" (or "Jucy Lucys") are a big thing about town. A couple places claim to be the originator of this indulgence; I got one from the 5-8 Club.

• Wild rice is really a thing, particularly around Duluth. Basically every place selling souvenirs was selling little bags of wild rice, while more than a few road signs advertised multi-pound bags.

• There's a realtor in Minneapolis who puts his face on every billboard everywhere. But he looks more like a televangelist than a realtor. I would not trust this guy.

• Though Dunkin Donuts are in Denver too, there really aren't any near me, so I don't go very often. Thus, it was at a "quick breakfast stop" here on vacation that I learned of the existence of their "Snackin' Bacon." Well played.

• 
  I could not see any breaks in this awesome orange peel served in my Old Fashioned by Vikre Distillery in Duluth. But there MUST have been, right? I'd love to know how they achieved this wizardry.

In all, Minnesota was a lovely vacation. Thanks for indulging me as I've recounted and relived the highlights.

Cruising Around Minneapolis

After wrapping up the Duluth leg of our Minnesota trip, we drove back down to Minneapolis/St. Paul. We made a brief stop along the way at another candy store, this time at a place called Sweetly Kismet. While they didn't make their own candy on site, they did stock a variety of weird and obscure things -- in their building hidden in a forested clearing at the end of a "candy" lined dirt road, like the witch's cottage in Hansel and Gretel or something.

Our first stop in Minneapolis was the Mississippi River -- specifically, a short cruise on a riverboat called the Minneapolis Queen. Yes, it was a very "tourist packaged" experience. But also -- it does exactly what you want that kind of experience to do. We went by city landmarks including the Stone Arch bridge (among other bridges), old flour mills, and odd buildings like the Weisman Art Museum that you can see from the river. We got to pass through a lock system in the river, and were lucky enough to see a bald eagle perched high in a tree right along the bank.

Later in the afternoon, we headed over to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, a park where dozens of sculptures are scattered for you to stroll around and take in. The large "Spoonbridge and Cherry" is something of a mascot for the city, but there were all sorts of interesting creations in all sizes and styles -- including a horse that appears to be made of driftwood (but is really bronze), a big blue... rooster, and even giant suspended art you can sit on and swing.

We also visited the Mall of America, which is both exactly what you'd expect and more than you could imagine. Sprawling larger than the largest mall you've likely ever been in, and then stacked three full stories high (with still another partial level above that), it is both "just a mall" and "ridiculously excessive." Well, maybe more "ridiculously excessive," when you consider the multi-ride amusement park in the center.

We also peppered a couple brewery stops in throughout that day -- though a great many of the city's breweries are closed on Mondays. Town Hall was a solid example of "pure beer styles" with decent food, while Lakes & Legends was the most outspokenly pro-LGBT+ location we visited amid many breweries over the trip that were celebrating Pride Month.

We still had one more full day of our trip before returning home the day after, and so I still have one more post's worth of short stories to recount soon.

Strange New Worlds: The Elysian Kingdom

Coming back from vacation, I'm a couple episodes behind in posting about the newest installments of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The season finale arrives today, but first I need to go back a few to "The Elysian Kingdom."

The Enterprise becomes the setting of a fantasy adventure from the storybook of Dr. M'Benga's daughter Rukiya, with the crew becoming the characters. Retaining his own memories in the middle of this transformation, Dr. M'Benga must discover what has happened, find his daughter, and seek help from Hemmer (who also seems unaffected).

This episode is certainly the wildest swing Strange New Worlds has taken in its first season -- and alongside an episode like "Spock Amok," that's saying something. This is a chance for all the cast to cut loose and play against type. Every actor seems to be having more fun than the next, whether it's Celia Rose Gooding playing Uhura as an evil queen, Christina Chong remaking the uptight La'an as an operatic diva, or Anson Mount vanquishing Pike's steely resolve to play a sniveling coward.

Things get so outlandish and silly at times that I'm tempted to say that the episode is a lot more "fun" than it is "good." But then it takes the biggest, hardest swing of all in the final act. All the zaniness leads to a deeply dramatic resolution of the ongoing subplot about M'Benga's daughter Rukiya. Babs Olusanmokun, who as M'Benga had been making his way through the episode with entertaining eyerolls and exasperated sighs, suddenly must turn on a dime and deliver not one but two back-to-back tearful goodbyes to his beloved daughter (first as a child, and then abruptly as a childlike adult).

In the writing, I'm not entirely convinced that such an abrupt tonal shift really works. But in the acting (and in the moment), I was very much sold. And moreover, I'm glad that the series decided not to string this plot along as M'Benga's eternal personal motivation. This particular taffy didn't need to be stretched any further, and it found nice resolution: to help his daughter, M'Benga had to sacrifice his own happiness.

Strange New Worlds is the throwback to classic Star Trek: episodic adventures, embodying different genres from one week to the next. Definitely, part of that formula is to do something silly and camp like "A Piece of the Action" or "Qpid." So overall, I must say I liked "The Elysian Kingdom." I give it a B+.

Duluth the Trek

Because of (waves hand at everything) all that's been going on in the world, my husband and I had not been on a vacation out of the state in three years. We decided that we deserved a long weekend somewhere. Quickly, we concluded we didn't want to go anywhere that required too long a flight, we didn't want to go anywhere that would be too stiflingly hot at this time of year, and we did want to go somewhere neither of us had been before. At the intersection of that Venn diagram: Minnesota.

We flew into Minneapolis on Saturday, but immediately set out on a drive north to Duluth. We planned for the next day to take the North Shore Scenic Drive along the coastline of Lake Superior, and wanted to be at the starting point for that morning to give us as much time to work with as possible. That actually still gave us plenty of afternoon and evening in Duluth.

The city was a little reminiscent of San Francisco, perched on a hillside with steep streets backed up right against a vast "ocean." We went to Leif Erikson Park. It's a lovely little location with easy walking between a number of different secluded nooks right along the coastline. There was a nice rose garden to stroll through (though we weren't quite there for peak bloom), and a great view of Duluth's signature skyline feature: the Aerial Lift Bridge (a 100-year-old bridge that raises entirely to let ships through, rather than breaking in the middle).

We went on to do some brewery hopping around the city, quickly discovering some recurring themes of the trip: almost every brewery in Minnesota was boldly celebrating Pride Month, and a great many were also making a Girl Scout cookie inspired beer (and sharing proceeds with the organization). Bent Paddle Brewing Company was my favorite of the stops, but there was something tasty everywhere we went.

The next morning, we started north along that scenic drive, watching Wisconsin and Michigan gradually pull farther out of view across the water as we went along. We had only a few stops in mind, and were open to pulling off anywhere that looked good. So our first stop was one actually recommended by a Duluth local the night before: the "Great! Lakes Candy Kitchen." We picked up some sweets made right there on site to take with us for the trip.

From there, it was on to Gooseberry Falls State Park. A series of falls clustered together on the Gooseberry River made for some pretty pictures, and a one-mile hike to the "Fifth Falls" gave us some exercise too. It was a fairly easy walk, with the "mile high credit" of coming down near sea level working in our favor, but was well worth the effort.

Our next stop was at the Split Rock Lighthouse, a picturesque 100-year-old lighthouse perched on a cliff overlooking the lake. We got to tour inside the lighthouse as well as the home of the former keepers, and learned fun details about the practices and designs of lighthouses as we snapped some nice pictures. That was our turnaround point, as we then headed back toward the town of Two Harbors. We stopped for delicious food at Betty's Pies, and then hit up a few more brewery stops on our way back to the hotel.

That night was the deciding game in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and we had gotten advice from locals the night before about where we could go watch it. After the tiring day we'd had, we opted just to watch from the hotel room instead. Still, watching the Colorado Avalanche win the Stanley Cup was a nice non-trip-specific capper to a fun day.

The next morning, we'd move down to Minneapolis/St. Paul for the rest of the trip... which I'll pick up with in a future post.